The missus has decided, for my birthday, to learn how to play D&D. Huzzah!

Havard asked what setting we'll be using, and (of course), this one-on-one will be set in Mystara, utilizing the Thorn's Chronicle mythology.

The wife wanted to play a high elven wizardess, and has spent the past few days toiling through the character creation process, large chunks of it while I'm either at work or sleeping. Without me having to nag! (so proud!)

Her basic level adventures will likely consist of gathering spell components and tracking down books and other research material for her master, a kindly (if somewhat crotchety) old elf named Illsundal....

Yes, we'll be looking at a small area of the Western coast of Brun, a vast forest nestled between the Hyborean Reaches and the sea, home of the elves in exile, in the years leading up to the creation of the first Tree of Life.

Thorn's Chronicle:Under Dragonswatch

Had to tell somebody about this, and the wife knows about the Thorn's Chronicle Faceborg page and blog, so....

Anyhoo, if any of you would like to pitch in ideas, or can point me towards resources other than Gaz 5 and CM7 (both of which I already own), or if you're interested to know how this plays out, please let me know, either here in the thread, or through forum PM.

Hollow World Boxed Set: descriptions of Ilsundal and Mealiden. Migration maps.Dragonlord Trilogy: I think it is book two where the heroes travel across the Rainbow bridge to the Sylvan Realm in ca AC500.WotI Boxed Set: desciptions of Ilsundal and MealidenGaz3: Isn't there another Moorkroft in gaz3? Fan speculation is that they are related.

BC1900 gives the wandering elves a few hundred years to settle in, build some rather larger clan holdings, which are listed by clan name rather than giving a name to a city.

The missus' PC is a third daughter of the king's brother's second wife. Great. I need an elven king. For simplicity, I'm having the Mealidil clan assuming rulership, their clan holdings at White Tower which is the nominal "capital."

Though the elves have settled in the forests of the Realm, they are far from its masters: A young adult green dragon lairs near the Geyser Pools, and demands tribute from the elves in exchange for leaving them in peace. Usually, it is satisfied with magical items crafted by the Long Runner or Mealidil. Other times, it wants portions of crops or precious metals and gems. Recently, a red has taken roost in the Hyborean Reaches of the Realms' eastern borders, and the two dragons' violent disagreements are growing in frequency and ferocity....

At least one hag lives in the bogs to the north, but she has grown more and more curious about intruders to "her" realm in more recent years. She fosters several tribes of goblins, sending them out to do her bidding.

Orcs and Men lurk in the mountains surrounding the Realm, though the elves have pretty much taught them to keep to their high passes and lands further south. Still, rumors and sightings of more than simple raiding parties persist in the various elven courts....

Ilsundal has retreated to the far north, shutting himself away from the politics and general bustle of daily elven life, devoting himself to meditation and studies. He has seen the sickness creeping into the elves, particularly the Long Runner and Mealidil clans, and is researching a means to halt it, or at the very least slow the pace of its destructive influence.

Not marked on (this) version of the map are the ruins from the pre-Great Rain of Fire research substation, including two weather stations, a lighthouse on Narwhal Isle, and several supply depots along the coast. The Hyborean Ranges are also home to several mysterious tombs, belonging to the culture that predated the Blackmoor colony, which crafted the great crystalline dome under which the elves hold their clan councils.

I've tried to place the elven clan settlements close to where they might make sense given the clans' "personalities," but I welcome feedback and suggestions of changes or additions.

Two things: 1) Shouldn't the Ellerowyn (Erewan) Clan be there too? They were one of the Alfheim Clans.2) I'm not sure if the Callarii exist at this time. IMC, they were formed when Lady Callarii decided not to follow her lover Mealiden from Karameikos to Alfheim, but instead to care for those elves who were not fit to make yet another journey after following Mealiden across the Rainbow Bridge. Can't claim canonicity for that one, but it is based on some snippets from B10 as well as Gaz1.

Two things: 1) Shouldn't the Ellerowyn (Erewan) Clan be there too? They were one of the Alfheim Clans.

I thought Ellerowyn split from Alfhiem after the elven nation was established. I seem to remember a "300 years ago" reference in Gaz 5, but don't have t book on me at the moment.

Havard wrote:2) I'm not sure if the Callarii exist at this time. IMC, they were formed when Lady Callarii decided not to follow her lover Mealiden from Karameikos to Alfheim, but instead to care for those elves who were not fit to make yet another journey after following Mealiden across the Rainbow Bridge. Can't claim canonicity for that one, but it is based on some snippets from B10 as well as Gaz1.

Hmm, I'll have to re-check my reference material as well. Still, having a more-than-just-forest-elves in the Sylvan Realm gives me an excuse to have horses in the area.

Ah, here are the references:

Gaz 5, pp 7-8: "Harassed and deceived at every turn, the elves fled northward. Some stopped in what is now Karameikos and became the Calarii elven clan."Gaz 5, p. 8: "Recent Comings and Goings: "...The Erendyl clan split 300 years ago, with the Erewan faction moving to Glantri."

After some more revision, and a session of play, the map is looking a bit like this:

"Grandpa" Ilsundal is nose-deep in research, trying to solve the riddle of a sickness that has been overtaking the elves. It would appear his theory of it being caused by the taint of the human empire's technology is wrong, as separating from the Technologist factions has not curbed the illness in the least. He needs more information, and his studies have turned up intriguing references to sources long buried by the previous inhabitants of these lands.

And thus, he sends forth his new apprentice and her traveling companions to seek out records thought to lie within the ruins beneath Spire Rock....

A seeing-stone is a pale blue-gray gemstone, polished to a rounded finish, roughly the diameter of an Imperial gold piece. These are mounted in unobtrusive locations, usually the corner of a chamber, just below the ceiling. By itself, the seeing-stone is merely a curious decoration. But when paired to a wizard eye globe, it allows the wizard eye globe's user to "see" through the stone. It only shows normal vision, thus is foiled by darkness (both natural and magical). On the plus side, it is also not fooled by sight-based illusions: the user of the accompanying wizard eye will simply not see any such illusions within the globe.

A wizard eye globe is a sphere of glass, roughly 6 inches in diameter filled with a swirling, light colored fog or vapor of some kind. Concentrating on the globe allows the user to see the view from any nearby linked seeing-stone in the depths of the sphere.

A wizard eye globe can be attuned to up to 12 different seeing-stones which can be accessed up to 300 yards' distance. The globe normally defaults to showing the view through the closest such stone. However, the user can "blink" to any other seeing-stone within range of which he or she is aware. Seeing-stones have a tendency to interfere with each other, and trying to see through a more distant stone with another between can sometimes cause the sight within the wizard eye globe to be blurry or distorted.

General Skills: The user (usually a spell caster) must make a Magical Engineering check to activate the wizard's eye globe, and subsequent checks can be made to "blink" to viewing through another nearby linked seeing-stone. More distant seeing-stones impose a +1 penalty to the roll for each chamber's distance, with an additional +1 penalty for each other seeing-stone between the user and the target stone.

5e: The user must make a DC 13 Intelligence (Arcana) check to activate the wizard eye globe. A DC 13 check can be made to "blink" to another nearby stone, with the DC increasing by 2 for every chamber between the wizard eye globe and the target seeing-stone. The check is made with disadvantage if one or more seeing-stones are between the globe and the user's intended target seeing-stone.

So it would appear that dungeon-crawling is not really the missus' thing. She did, however, vastly enjoy meeting the abandoned Crusade-era facility's "guardian spirit," a ghostly projection of a young maiden with golden hair and eyes as brilliant blue as the gemstone from which she emanated. (Readers of the Chronicle, or players in the Throne of Stars campaign might recognize her...)

Many of the combat encounters were avoided, enemies were defeated by means other than the sword (mainly, by cloak and blanket), and information that Ilsundal sought was found, as was a strangely-veined fist-sized nut or seed, said by the i.V.E.E. to be some sort of anti-demon barrier projector that the Men of the facility had been tinkering with.

Next few sessions, it looks like it'll be back to the Long Runners' magical college. Perhaps with a stop by WhiteTower for some elven court-ly politicking and strategic marriage-avoidance. So, NPCs seem to be the next big development project: royal cousins, romantic rivals, a small host of suitors, classmates and instructors and magical-learning curriculum.

I've plucked what material I can from Gaz 5, but I'm starting to hit the limits of what I can glean; there are no Trees of Life and Treekeepers as yet. I'm thinking of using druids and nature priests (devoted to Ordana and maybe Djaea?) in their place.

(The missus' fascination with the school of Necromancy is a wee bit troubling. She is determined to animate that dead sprite in the jar she got from the trinket table...)

The Greenshae"Avoid it if you can, skirt it if you dare, tread Greenshae's Bog at your own peril."

Some maps mistakenly mark the marshes to the north of Ietzirah "The Greenshaes." The Shiye smirk at the Outlander's blunder, while the elves of Grunalf are quick to make a ward against the evil eye, and breathe a prayer that there should not be more than one Greenshae.

It is immediately apparent, on setting foot in the swamps, that the land itself is warped. The generally temperate climate of the Sylvan forests gives way to a cloying, fetid humidity. Birdsong gives way to the grating call of carrion birds, the hiss and rasp of scales against rotting wood replaces the rustle of animals in undergrowth. It feels as if the entirety of the swamp holds its breath, waiting….

Grunalf hunters speak of the sweh’melevah, the breath one takes in before loosing the arrow at quarry. A party of them is said to’ve nearly come to blows around a meager campfire their first and only night in the bogs, arguing over which of them felt to be on the receiving end of sweh’melevah, for each was uncomfortably aware of a menacing presence bent on seeing them breathe their last. The Shiye, too, speak of the unnatural state of the swamps: the land and its shadows offer them no refuge, instead giving off a smoldering malice.

Lasiandra’s GroveSounds of combat draw the PCs to the ruins of a township by a swiftly-flowing stream. Several trees have grown amidst the tumble-down shells of the buildings, the most majestic of them a willow rising from the remains of the mill.

A handful of goblins surround a dryad, keeping her from reaching her home tree. Three more stand by the great willow, striking flint to steel.

If the PCs understand goblinnish, they hear the biggest of the goblins ask (for the last time) where ‘it’ is, and that if she doesn’t tell them, they’ll burn her tree.

When she sees the PCs, the dryad will plead for help.

A DC 13 Wisdom(Perception) check gives the impression that something is not quite right. If the roll beats the DC by 5 or more, the PC notices that the sunlight streaming through the willow’s leaves is oddly muted, and that shadows beneath its boughs are somehow deeper than they should be.

A black dragonstone has lodged itself in the roots of the willow, washed downstream from Spire Rock, infecting the tree and corrupting the dryad that lives within it. The Greenshae has detected the stone’s presence though she does not know precisely where it is, and has dispatched a troop of goblins to retrieve the stone. She will not abide it in the hands of another, as she is highly covetous of her power, and is not yet ready to share.

The corrupted dryad Lasiandra will play the victim for as long as possible, relishing in her newfound ability to speak words that are not true.* She denies knowing what it is the goblins are after, even what it is of which they speak. If she suspects the PCs are on to her (Wisdom (Insight) vs her passive Charisma (Deception) score of 14), if they get too close to the stream, or her tree(and thus, where the stone is hidden among the stones of the stream bank, in the shadow of her home tree’s roots), she will raise up 2d6 twig blights to attack.

* the fey of Thorn's Mystara are normally unable to speak that which is not true. They may twist the meaning of what they say, or direct their words so that they may deliberately be misunderstood by others, but they cannot tell an outright lie. It is unknown if this is a natural phenomena, or if it is a legacy of the ancient pact between the Summer and Winter Queens.

This is (as is everything around here) still very much in draft, and though it is somewhat started for 5e, I purposefully left as many mechanics out as I could so you might use this in your own forest-y encounters, no matter which version of the game you play.

Last weekend's session saw the missus' character, the elven Lady Raina, coming to the aid of a dryad beset by goblins, while on her way back to Ilsundal's tower with her learnings from Spire Rock.

The dryad, initially distrustful because of the elfess' fondness for firebolt, gladly accepted the aid in destroying the goblins. The Lady Raina's traveling companions, the druid Erevan, noted how he'd never heard of a dryad being able to 'animate plants' like Lasiandra had done....

As a reward, the dryad hinted at something beneath one of the buildings' foundations that her home tree's roots had encountered. A bit of digging turned up a lacquered wooden box, containing a stash of gems and silver coins, along with a letter (in dwarfish), and a map of some sort. Taking these to her grandfather at his tower, he was able to tell her that the note was written from one dwarvish brother to another, explaining that the colony had failed, and they were retreating to the mountain fortress. The gems and coins were apparently to cover travel expenses incurred in finding the way back to this fortress, which was shown to be "somewhere north" according to Erevan's interpretation of the star map's directions.

So the elven wizard is faced with several conundrums: why would bands of goblins be roaming the woods so far from their usual mountain bolt-holes? Why their fanatical insistence on finding 'the stone'? (The forest and mountains are full of rocks!) What's the deal with the crazier-than-usual dryad? (Neither Raina nor her companions found the black dragonstone nestled in the roots of Lasiandra's home tree's roots) How can the wizardess avoid as much pageantry and stuffy courtly politicking, as it has been discovered that the green dragon did not, in fact, eat her? And just what is with grandfather Ilsundal's obsession with longevity and this 'problem' he sees growing within the ranks of the elves?

The next session will involve Raina's return to the Long Runner's magical academy (it's either finish her wizardly schooling, or be married off to one of the Long Runner clans' higher lords. Elven politics... what can ya do?); lesser pageantry, field work and Magical Finals; a first brush with the Corruption.....

OriginsAbout the time Ilsundal’s migration began, a series of quakes ripped through the Hyborean Reaches, damaging the the outflow piping beneath Dragonwatch Keep. Wastewater from the facility’s dragonstone reactor crystal cooling pools began to seep into some of the tributaries feeding the fledgling Ietzirah woodlands.

Trees along the major streams began to sicken after the first decade. Within a century, the northern rim of the woods had succumbed to the befouled waters. The waters also claimed the home tree of the dryad Ashe.

Rather than kill the tree, though, the demon-tainted waters infected it, in turn poisoning the dryad. Over the course of the next century, she became more and more twisted, giving in to the whispered powers gathering in her tree. Those fey who did not flee were driven out by the dryad. What wildlife was left, the dryad either ate, or sacrificed in an attempt to silence the insistent jabberings and whisperings of the demonic infection. Her last desperate act, her last as a dryad, was to sacrifice her own home tree. Far from freeing her from the demonic clutches, it sealed her doom, completing her transformation into a hag.

The Heart of CorruptionThe Greenshae lairs in the middle of the swamp, in a squat stone tower that was once an oak, long ago corrupted and petrified by the demonic taint suffusing the waters of the bog. The hag has cultivated several vine blights to lurk near the tower entrance, as well as the bottom of the main stairwell, and the top of the stairs leading down to her current lab and living quarters in the basement levels.

The walls of the open main floor are lined with crude shelving, upon which she displays all manner of gruesome trophies: faun hooves, actaeon antlers, bottled sprites and pixies, a tarnished silver platter heaped with blackened, desiccated nixie tongues. More recent additions to her collection include fingers and ears from the elven clans intruding upon “her” domain.

The tower’s upper floors have been abandoned as the stone decayed, leaving once-fine furniture and laboratory equipment to molder and rust. Bats and stirges vie for roosts.

The tower's lower levels consist of stone-lined hollows beneath the petrified tree's roots. Slimes, oozes and jellies puddle in the deeper shadows, and at least one shambling mound nests amidst the remains of past and current victims of the hag's obsessions. The Greenshae's workshop and audience chamber are guarded by two flesh golems stitched together from parts of fauns, goblins, and lizard men.

This weekend's session covered the trek from Ilsundal's tower southwest, through Crystal Dome and the gap between the Twin Hills, to the opulent Long Runner territories. As a parting gift, Raina's grandfather gave her three spell scrolls containing Thunderwave, Mage Armor, and Magic Weapon.

This little piggy....Along the way, there was a dispute between the party and a gnoll hunting pack, over how to divide the spoils of the PCs' encounter with a giant boar. The missus' character was perfectly willing to let them take half. Unfortunately, the gnolls' idea of "half" was "all of it." The party druid entangled the gnolls while the scout danced amidst the four of them, slicing and dicing. Those the missus' character didn't cook with fire bolts (one of the Daryls and and Larry), she half-froze with rays of frost. (Other Daryl) And the one that got close enough to try to bite (alas, poor Ed) got its snout shocking grasped.

This gave her enough XP to tip over to third level, so I again walked her through the leveling-up process. Two new spells were wrangled from the great tome given to her by Ilsundal: Suggestion and Phantasmal Force. The latter was put to use in avoiding the ogre's toll through the gap between the Twin Hills. Intelligence of 5 vs. an illusory she-ogre? As the elven thiefopportunist Phaelias put it: "No... I think we're better off not knowing the details....."

The Long Runner territory was dominated by extravagant, gaudily built-up Home trees, all of them overly burdened with decoration and flair, as if each was trying to outdo its neighbor (which, in fact, it was). By stark contrast, at the edge of the main "township," the Gardens were stately, reserved-- as if to hold the magic that formed them in awe and reverence rather than using it for show and embellishment. High hedgerows mark the borders of the University of Magical Studies. The tallest of trees could be seen peeking above the hedges, the so-called "tower trees," where the administrator's quarters are, the main library, and boarding of students. Most of the classes are taught out in the open air, each school of magic with its own garden and smaller library tower. In cases of inclement weather, instruction is given within these library towers.

Just outside the main "walls" of the campus is a ramshackle collection of warehouses, stables, and watering holes for the caravans and merchants passing through, whether dropping off supplies for the school or passing through the wide turn in the trail eastward to White Tower and the Mealidil/Erendyl districts in the Atziluth Woods.

The party found this place packed to capacity: every room taken in the hostels, the pub, and even the Common Hall filled to over capacity. The school grounds have been evacuated, on the orders of the administrators, after several classes fell ill. The grounds then filled with a mysterious, seething thick, gray fog, which roils just above the tops of the hedgerows, and flows within the confines of the main archway -- but does not spill out into the streets of the makeshift merchant's quarters outside the walls....

Those venturing into the mists fall ill less than a dozen strides into it ("It's a prismatic spray of an entirely different kind...." the bard at the common hall said, when asked about the effects of this sickness). A letter and sample of the mists has been flown by familiar to Ilsundal's tower, and the party awaits the elven archmage's analysis and reply.....

Next weekend, the party -- now plus a bard and sorcerer (Lady Raina's school buddies), will brave the mists to see what has become of the faculty, who at last report, were holed up in the administration tower-tree.

The missus has decided she'd rather go Illusionist rather than Evoker for her Arcane Tradition, and I've allowed her to make that switch -- she is much more at ease sneaking and avoiding conflict than going in fire bolts blazing. Not that she doesn't like to mix it up if the bad guys insist on causing trouble...

Last edited by RobJN on Sat May 09, 2015 6:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Before the wizards of Sundsvall founded their Tower of Seven Lights....

Elves were the masters of magic, in the time between Blackmoor's destruction and the Alphatian Landfall.

The GardensLong Runner Academy of Magical Learning

As described a bit up-thread, the Sylvan Realm's core of arcane learning is a complex of large gardens, each dedicated to one of the Eight Mysteries (as the more poetically inclined of the elves call the "schools of magic").

The next leg of my growing 5th edition elf-centric campaign will focus on the Gardens, exploring each in search of clues for what happened, and how to reverse the effects of the clinging, poisonous mists.

Central to all of it is a demon's shadow, allowed to slip through the Ethereal boundary by an overly ambitious group of conjuring students. The shadow has raised the mists all over the grounds of the Garden, and they have given rise to all sorts of nastiness that will have to be dealt with as the different gardens are traversed by the party.

General conditions: The mists and fog blanket everything, making things lightly obscured. Without a light source, the PCs are facing dim lighting conditions. Even with a light source, its radius of normal/bright light is cut in half. Using magic will be somewhat dicey, with an as-yet-to-be-determined chance of spells taking on a life of their own and turning on their caster I'm thinking this will scale with proximity to the Conjuror's Garden and the demon's shadow.

I'm working with themes, of a sort: the Conjuror's Garden is sort of central to the school, and is home to the demonic shadow as well as what is left of the seven students that summoned it (now transformed into wyrds).

The Enchanter's Garden's main challenge is a banshee. I still need other "minor" enchantment-related encounters for within the bounds of this garden, though...

The Illusionist's Glen is haunted by roaming packs of shadows.

In the Evoker's Garden, the PCs find themselves stalked by the animated scarecrow targets. Several different varieties of Living Spells will also be encountered.

The Necromancer's Boneyard is.. Oh, come on, do I have to spell this one out for you?

I still need Abjuration, Divination, and Transmutation-themed challenges....

RobJN wrote:(The missus' fascination with the school of Necromancy is a wee bit troubling. She is determined to animate that dead sprite in the jar she got from the trinket table...)

Huh... Might not turn out quite like she expects...

Running through some older posts (for me anyway) and came upon this. Not quite done with the thread yet, but I really like the sound of this adventure. On a personal note I'm interested to know how this turns out - what aspects of the game your wife enjoys more than others. It may be helpful for me, as I'm considering running another one on one game with my daughter, and she seems to have some of your wife's preferences (more talking, less dungeon crawling ).

How 'bout another one? Working on fleshing out the adventure skeleton I wrote up for the home game. Here is version 2 of the cover:A bit busy. I want to get the Project: Dragonwatch branding in there, too, but the logo area was getting crowded already. And while I liked the dark-and-ominous clouds, I think I need to lighten them up a bit. Still trying to get the baddie to superimpose over the main part of the rock formation so one can tell there's a rock formation back there.....

Amazing, what a little cable outage will get you. Waiting for the thunderstorm(s) to pass, I whittled away some time actually using the laptop's battery

So, which one would work for your group?

Beneath Spire Rock wrote:Adventure HooksThere are as many reasons to venture into the depths of Spire Rock as there are adventurers. Some possible hooks are listed below, but feel free to allow PCs to come up with their own reasons for wanting to explore the ruins, if none of these are appropriate for your campaign.

Smoke signals. A thin plume of black smoke can be seen trailing from the tip of the Spire, where none was ever seen before. What has the earthquake shaken loose up there? If the PCs are not curious on their own, perhaps a village elder tasks them with finding the source of the sudden smoke.

Lights in the dark. A strange, blinking light has appeared at the peak of the Spire, dimly visible during the day, but very noticeable at night. The pattern is even, and repeats itself after every twelve or so flashes. The PCs are tasked with finding the source of this unnatural beacon.

Moynton’s haul. The merchant Moynton is more than a week late for his usual twice yearly visit to the village markets. This season, the market is abuzz with as much talk of the strange items he brings as the ludicrous price he charges for the oddities: figurines of a strange shape, made of a glossy material of stone-that-is-not-stone; round serving platters of a similar material, and dining implements of what looks like steel, but fashioned in a way none have ever seen. When asked about these strange items, he will eventually admit that he found them in the depths beneath Spire Rock… and that it cost three of his guards their lives in securing the loot, of which this is but a tiny fraction, the contents of the one small sack he was able to secure. There is more — much more — to be found below. Now, if the PCs are interested in a little business venture, he is more than willing to help finance another expedition… for a cut of the profits, of course.